We Are No Risk-Takers, We Are a Generation of Back-up Plans

Our parents, relatives and seniors we come across may even call us (late Gen Y and Gen Z 90s – millenials) the risk-takers, the bold ones, the free-spirited, and the wanderlust. With our Instagram feed filled up with squares of travel spots, beautiful sceneries, us hanging by the cliffs, wow… We actually managed to convince everyone that we’re the true risk-takers, the bold ones, how we love to travel/backpack and we seriously love challenges.

Truth is, how much of a challenge can life be when almost everything is handled to us on our plates? I’m not just talking about financial freedom and opportunities; But even things like relationships. We are a generation that is afraid of failing, we don’t take enough chances and we always have back-up plans.

We study really hard, sometimes way too hard.

We’re afraid of failing. We make sure we get a degree. We do what it takes to get a good score, to get into a prestigious school and to make sure we have a back-up field to go into if we don’t eventually manage to get into what we want to do. We choose our field of studies based on the amount of money we’re assured we would get… Scrolling through government pages, looking at the monthly salary offered to a degree student… Deciding our majors by asking our seniors and peers if they managed to get a good job.

How many of us have voluntarily stopped our education not because of any circumstances but because we truly believed we didn’t need it? How many of us have not just said we won’t put what we learnt in school to good use in the society and stuck to it, left school and tried to carve a path out for ourselves? Not us. Not most of us.

We have family to fall back on – and their money.

It’s okay, I don’t need this boring job. I don’t need stable income. I don’t want commitment. I love the freedom to do what I want to do for a living. I want to travel. I want to backpack. I hate stability.

We can say this because we have our parents/family to fall back on – and to be exact, I meant their money. Say, if you were to picture yourself without having a family (and their money) to fall back on, would you still have such thoughts in your head?

We’re arrogant. We’re unappreciative. Without this stability our family has offered us, we can’t be risk-takers. It would be impossible. A risk-taker is someone who goes all out and takes risk – duh. And we call ourselves that? What risks would it be if we’d still be perfectly fine, given allowance, given the freedom to stay home, meet our friends for dinner even if we fail at a new venture? These are no risks. We’re not risk-takers. We’re not bold. We’re not daredevils.

We’re a generation of fuck boys (and girls), two-timers and cheaters.

Back in the day when our parents were killin it, I believe no such term was even coined for these particular and specific groups of people. Today we have all sorts of serial daters. He’s talking to you today and talking to her on another… Or even on the same day, just on another app. He broke up with you for someone else, yet still talks about missing you and hoping things were the same with you. She’s been with her new boyfriend for a good 10 months after breaking up with you and still texts you “I miss you”.

We’re a generation of “seriously dating” someone and still surfing Tinder. We’re a generation that’s way too curious for our own good. We want to know what someone else can offer to us, and not what we can actually offer. We don’t want to settle for less. We’re afraid of settling for less. We’re afraid of cutting ourselves short for someone who may not even be worth it. We don’t take chances. We’re afraid of giving a 100% to someone else.

We don’t want to be seen as the losing party. We want to win. Therefore we make back-up plans. The other cute guy B you can date right after ending things with guy A. We make sure we don’t have time to grief. Plans after plans. We no longer commit.

After all, we’re just blessed with abundant opportunities that we often take for granted.

Ultimately, I don’t see us as risk-takers, bold life-loving individuals or even free-spirited wanderlusts. We get to travel, explore, see more, do more and also demand more because of what have been offered to us – A generation of opportunities. We have plans to fall back on and that’s no fault of ours, we’re blessed and we just need to be more appreciative. We have been nurtured this way with school curriculum planting thoughts of being successful in our heads. To always be smarter. To constantly improve. To never shortchange ourselves. To make our money worth.

It is a competitive society after all. One day you’re good and the next you’re nothing. We make plans because we know how fast things change and fall apart. We have seen how bad things can get for the older generations. We understand the consequences and we don’t want to be that. We have seen cheaters and two-timers in our friends and family, we don’t want to be the stupid ones. We want to be better.

And for this, it is nobody’s fault. It is how the world has changed. It is how we will continue to grow and the future generations will only become even more competitive.

Let’s just take things slow for now and indulge a hundred percent in every single thing we do. Make good use of these opportunities.

Do more because we can. Love more because we can. And appreciate because we can.

Just a short update on what’s up with my life right now: My immune system is at all-time low because it’s about time of the month… Damn. This is just sad. But I’m okay, still surviving! Also started watching Westworld and How to Get Away with Murder.. So intriguing!!! If you’re one for sci-fi stuff you’d love Westworld, at least I do~ Dr Strange’s vfx was also crazily good. The whole time I was wow-ed and all that went through my head was “how long did they take to do up the entire vfx!?” and also “glad I didn’t watch this drunk”. Trippy much. Happy midweek!